EdgeConneX, Comcast Bring Faster Internet to Twin Cities

EdgeConneX, a global data center provider, has announced that it will partner with Comcast (News - Alert) and the Minneapolis Saint Paul Regional Economic Development Partnership (Greater MSP) to bring faster, more reliable Internet to the Twin Cities region of Minnesota.

EdgeConneX will make this possible through its establishment of the Edge Data Center that is now working within the region. According to the company’s announcement, its creation of the data center seeks to create more innovation and entrepreneur activity in the Twin (News - Alert) Cities by serving the needs of individuals and businesses. In this area where Comcast already has a presence, the Greater MSP exclaimed its excitement for this partnership – one which EdgeConneX Chief Commercial Officer Clint Heiden (News - Alert) said was launched in “an ideal place.”

“EdgeConneX is proud to play an important role in helping the MSP region attract and accelerate enterprise growth,” Heiden said. “Our partnership with Comcast and Greater MSP makes Minneapolis-St. Paul an ideal place to bring our Edge Data Center ecosystem.”

The new data center provides the benefits of offering a close proximity to wired and cellular services and attachment to colocation facilities that ensure high bandwidth for all use cases. For officials in the Greater MSP and therefore for all end users, the data center’s offloading of backbone traffic can also make efficient use of traffic that makes routing easy and minimizes the number of performance-related outages one might experience with similar setups.

Statistics associated with this report include the reality that global Internet traffic has the potential to quadruple in 2019 from its levels in 2014. According to Cisco (News - Alert), this means that global cloud traffic could explode to 8.6 zettabytes by 2019. With all manner of Web-based services moving to the cloud, including the use of linked devices that comprise the Internet of Things, Internet service providers such as Comcast and data center providers such as EdgeConneX will need to be ready to handle everything coming down the pipe.

Luckily, those individuals and businesses in the Twin Cities area should have a front seat for how that explosion in traffic will be handled. Their access to broadband may sit at the front of the pack in the coming year and throughout the rest of the decade. Operation of the Edge Data Center began this month, so Comcast’s use of that resource should now reflect the performance it offers in the area.